Firstly, let me make myself absolutely clear on this one: I hated this book!!
I was lured by promises of the 'seventeenth century and the story of Isaac Newton as an alchemist' the 'ghost-writing of an unfinished book', 'unexplained seventeenth-century deaths, a network of alchemists and a ghostly figure'.
I bought this hook, line and sinker and was really looking forward to an exciting read. Wow, what a disappointment.
The narrator was addressing the story to a lover in the past tense (I think) and it kept jumping to the past and present, not including the visits to the seventeenth century. The attempt to make this story a thriller was a failure as far as I'm concerned.
The basic plot idea was to insinuate that an acquaintance of Isaac Newton had fellows at Trinity College in Cambridge 'murdered' to allow Isaac to gain a fellowship. The book was going to publish this theory, and change history. As a result of a ghostly figure and her relationship with her lover, (who was married by the way, and I hate books containing adultery), she changed the ending and published a 'safer version'. Ugh, what a disappointment!
Ultimately a really crappy book, and a H-U-G-E disappointment. No wonder it took me so long to finish it.
My rating = *
Carpe Librum!